C.J. Graham -- Health Care: Are We Our Brother’s Behavioral Enforcers?

HEALTH CARE: ARE WE OUR BROTHER'S BEHAVIORAL ENFORCERS?

By CJ Graham
January 24, 2010
NewsWithViews.com

Please listen to this excellent speech given by President Ronald Reagan about the dangers of Socialized Medicine. It is extraordinary to hear how long this war on Liberty has been waged and frightening to realize how close we are to its implementation.

Couple of weeks ago I watched one of my guilty pleasures, NBC’s The Biggest Loser, as I do each season. I admit to cheering on the successes and being glad for the individuals who achieve their goals. Being NBC- The Obama Network, I am aware that social messages are often intertwined with the show, as is the case with almost all television programming.

I wouldn’t waste your time talking about a reality TV show unless it was relevant to current events. In this case, health care reform and the now developing message that once the government takes over our healthcare, we will all be held personally accountable to the good of the collective.

We will all be a part of the civilian army, the government needs, to keep wayward citizens in check.

Last season, the contestants made the trek to DC to cook, in the White House Kitchen, and to visit the presidential garden. I rolled my eyes but continued to watch. This year the show’s theme has taken a disturbing turn.

In the past, the contestants have weighed in front of their trainers and with other contestants, with similar conditions, in a controlled clinical setting (despite being televised). This year, the contestants were challenged to have their first weigh-ins, in their own communities, in front of friends, family and peers.

They walked the plank (carpet) to the scales of shame surrounded by people who will soon be obligated to pay for their obesity and its resultant complications. Of course we are to believe this is for their own good, this public humiliation, a high tech equivalent to puritan town square stocks and chains.

The message was clear. The community now has a stake in the sins of the individual and the individual has an obligation to the collective therefore; we must hold each other accountable for the collective good and chastise, shame and hold accountable those who fall short.

While this could be scoffed at as simply a meaningless reality show with no importance, I suggest we all think a little further down the road and understand that public perceptions are often shaped by the media. This is the proverbial slippery slope.

Once this mindset is accepted and utilized as a control tool, the natural progression will be public shaming for smokers, the obese, alcohol abusers, Trans-fat eaters, junk fast food partakers, and eventually anything that can be seen as driving up health care cost. As such, abusers will be held in contempt for costing the collective available benefits, especially when the rationing begins, as we all know it must.

It will be our patriotic obligation to hold such selfishness accountable for the good of all. It will be our patriotic duty to stay in compliance with the parameters of the collective.

To all the twenty-somethings that bought into the whole ‘Free Universal healthcare for all’ ‘Hope and Change’ thing, I hope you don’t participate in binge drinking in college, or such risky endeavors as hang gliding, rock climbing, wind surfing, snowboarding, or other irresponsible injury causing activities which cost the collective money. Skateboarders who break an arm, bikers who ride without helmets, drivers who speed or text message or apply makeup will also be called on the town square carpet, for their selfish waste of taxpayer funds.

Are you having risky or unprotected sex? It isn’t ‘your womb your decision’ if the collective has to pay for your abortions or your STD treatments. The collective will have a right to admonish you. After all, they are paying for you, so you are now obligated to them.

Race car fans are participating in and encouraging both dangerous driving and carbon emissions. They must be stopped – or taxed heavily to offset the cost. After all, it’s only fair. Why should I pay for your stitches when you wipe out in the 23rd lap?

Your job will be affected too. If your job is seen as dangerous or you work too many hours, you might get hurt and need treatment which would cost the collective money. All of these issues will need to be carefully considered. Fines, taxes or surcharges will need to be paid to offset potential health care costs.

Having too many children can be dangerous statistically. Shall we limit the number of children allowed to be born? Late life pregnancy can raise the risk of Down’s syndrome. Shall we limit the age of pregnancy? Multi-births often cause premature birth. Shall we abort all but one or two fetuses? If you have a condition that is hereditary, aren’t you being selfish bringing a child into the world that might cost extra to take care of?

Are these questions cruel and harsh? They are, and it is only the beginning. When this mindset takes hold and we start to see each other as medical liabilities for which we must pay, it is denigrating to our humanity.

Think this scenario is farfetched? Think again. It is a certainty. Each of these examples and more will eventually be tested, as we trudge through the moral abyss that is Socialized Health Care Reform.

A loss of freedom for one is a loss of freedom for all and Socialized Health Care is a Pandora’s Box of control and punishment. Eventually, under its heavy hand, we will all be the contestant standing in the public square, facing the disapproving, shocked, and pitying crowd.

Congress and this administration are determined to do whatever it takes and by any means necessary to pass this legislation. They are already licking their chops and rubbing their hands together in anticipation of the fines, fees, surcharges and taxes they will levy.

Think Cap and Trade. If the goal were to stop carbon emissions, they would encourage people to use less than the allotted emissions. Of course that isn’t the goal. The true goal is to sell unused carbon credits between companies to make lots of money for elites, especially on Wall Street which will pad the pocket of the corrupt in DC.

The same goes for health care. This legislation is a vehicle for taxing behaviors and there will be no end to the reasons they will find to make you pay. From eating candy from a vending machine, to parachuting from a plane, everything you do has health consequences and will be regulated.

The biggest loser on NBC has just sent the first volley over the bow of individual responsibility to self and began the process of herding the sheep into the collective pen. The message was subtle but it was there.

Your community will be footing the bills for your healthcare now and that gives them a stake in your health and your behaviors just as the actions of others will be accountable to you.

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Do you remember being a teenager and arguing a point with your parents, only to have the debate shut down when they exclaimed, ‘As long as you live in my house, you will follow my rules’? Remember how great it felt to grow up and move into your own place, no matter how small and lowly, simply for the sense of freedom and self determination? Why are we so willing to become dependent once again?

Are you your brother’s behavioral enforcer? Is he yours?

"CJ" Graham is a Veteran and the proud wife of a retired USAF Veteran. She is a dedicated mother, activist, conservative, independent, who's allegiance is to her country and not to a particular political party. She is a firm believer in the power of the Citizen of the United States of America to whom she writes with a empowering and encouraging spirit. She knows that the Citizen of the USA can make a difference through peaceful, focused, knowledge empowered, activism working within the system and with media and legislators to effect change. As an author, she writes from the heart but backs up her work with facts.